


Tuesday's Children

by Warp5Complex_Archivist



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-08
Updated: 2006-03-08
Packaged: 2018-08-16 04:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8086315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warp5Complex_Archivist/pseuds/Warp5Complex_Archivist
Summary: Archer and Tucker meet for drinks every Tuesday. (06/07/2004)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Kylie Lee, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Warp 5 Complex](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Warp_5_Complex), the software of which ceased to be maintained and created a security hazard. To make future maintenance and archive growth easier, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but I may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Warp 5 Complex collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Warp5Complex).

"Hey, Admiral."

They've met for drinks every Tuesday. Every Tuesday since they left their ship they've met at this little bar in San Francisco and had drinks together and talked about 'the good old days'. And when they think about it for a long time, the good old days don't seem so good anymore. Those days have just turned into days that happened a while ago when all of them were still alive. So they're kind of good, but kind of sad. They talk about them anyway when they drink.

"You're here early," the man addressed as 'admiral', or Jonathan Archer, states. It's just the two of them that meet for drinks. Just them because the others have relocated now: one to their home planet, one to a ship, another back to where they started, one where they left off. The last...he is gone.

"Yeah, well, there's a first time for everythin', right?" Charles 'Trip' Tucker replies. They smile at each other, speaking through the grins as only old friends can do. "But really, I'm just thinkin'."

"What about?" asks Jon. He sits down at the table in a chair across from Trip. A waiter comes over to them and Jon orders a drink. He gets a Calypso Breeze because Trip and Malcolm always used to say it wasn't really a drink. Jon pauses, thinking. He thinks about Malcolm. Soon, the waiter's gone and Trip can answer Jon's question.

"Oh, yew know, the usual: life, destiny, how to throw a curve ball."

The waiter is back and Jon thinks for a moment that the service is great but then he remembers that they're regulars and he always gets a Calypso Breeze. Both of them are slightly grateful that the waiter came back then because Trip was quoting Malcolm.

"Guess what I heard," Jon says suddenly, wanting to break the thoughts that were falling on them. Trip nods for Jon to continue. "I heard that one of the old Enterprise crew just got promoted to a captain." Jon breaks into a grin and so does Trip, only slightly more subdued, because it was Trip who got the promotion. "Congratulations."

"Thanks."

Jon looks at Trip questioningly. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing." Everything. "Yew know, I thought about Malcolm today."

They look at each other over the table. Trip's eyes break away from Jon's first and Jon asks, "That's what's wrong, isn't it?"

Trip breaks. "I've been thinkin' about it all day," he says. "Because I'm not quite sure why I thought about him. There were no birthdays or anniversaries that Malcolm used to talk about or holidays he celebrated or anythin' for him I would have marked on my calendar that day. It's been buggin' me all day, Jon."

Jon nods. He's been thinking about Malcolm a lot too that day and tells Trip so.

"I figured it out as I was sittin' here," Trip says sadly. He stares at his fingers for a moment before telling Jon. "I remembered it. Three years ago, Jon, seven years ago today-he died." Jon wants to say that it isn't true but it is and they haven't thought about it for such along time. But Malcolm did die that day, that day seven years ago. And they forgot.

"He died on a Tuesday, Jon. He died on a Tuesday."

They sit back and don't talk for an hour, just drinking. They hate themselves the rest of the night and soon they leave, to go back next Tuesday and have drinks again. Trip goes home to his house and when he gets inside, he falls against the door. He hates himself because when Malcolm died he told himself something.

Don't forget. Never forget.

He forgot.


End file.
